


Power Awakens

by SarcasticBard1138



Category: Original Work
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-24 10:01:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30070542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SarcasticBard1138/pseuds/SarcasticBard1138
Summary: Possibly the beginning of a larger story where three friends, once inseparable, face each other in a deadly standoff.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	Power Awakens

“Stop this!” Tara couldn’t bear it as she watched her two best friends, Karthas and Derith stare each other down. The three of them grew up together, faced hardships that no children should face. They defended each other through everything, even when the three of them joined the Corps. Tara couldn’t even recall all of the times that Derith had been detained for defending Karthas from their drill sergeant or even other corpsmen. He had even nearly been dishonorably discharged and forced to work in the mines for his defiance. But now, with their clan in turmoil and on the brink of ruin, Karthas and Derith faced each other as mortal enemies.  
“Leave!” Derith snarled at Karthas, his body coming into a battle stance. He would not be swayed from his course of action, even if it was Karthas. Nothing would stop him from protecting it.  
“No, Derith! You’re coming with me, we’re going home, and we’re ending all of this,” Karthas bit back, the short barrel of a handgun clearing the holster he wore at his side. The fading sun’s light glinted off of the metal as if to accentuate the gun’s deadly capability. The badge on his lapel also reflected the sun’s light as though angels had forged it.  
“Stop!” Tara pleaded, her eyes solely on the gun in Karthas’s hand. She felt a slight tension in her hands as tears welled in her eyes. Her emotions were threatening to break free. The ground beneath the trio began to tremble, pebbles and loose dirt vibrating with unnatural speed and frequency. Derith and Karthas paid no heed, however. They were oblivious to the tremor that was growing in intensity. Derith grabbed the weapon from his own belt, preparing to fight not his friend, but a lawman, coming to collect.  
“I’m not going back, and if you try to make me, I’ll end you right here,” he growled. The ground shook more intensely now as Tara lost control of her rampant emotions bit by bit. The three of them weren’t just friends, they were family! Now, all of it was being torn apart over so small a thing. Tara’s breathing came quicker and harsher, her anger and despair getting ready to burst forth from her body. Everything slowed for her as if she were watching the entire exchange in slow motion.  
Tara was mortified by what she saw. The ash in the air that had once been falling like snow seemed to be frozen in the choking air. Pebbles that were practically leaping from the barren rock beneath them now seemed to float. She could see the index fingers of both men touch the triggers on their respective weapons. They were going to do it. Just short of brothers to each other growing up and now the last thing either one would ever see. Tara could no longer contain her feelings.  
“I said, enough!” Tara screeched, clutching her head as the power inside her erupted into a ground-shattering quake. The ground split all around her as the massive shockwave exploded outward in every direction. Everything around Tara convulsed in the upheaval. Stone spires, once stalwart in their dedication to holding up the sky, crumbled and fell at her power. Volcanic ash, once evenly spread across the ground now leapt into the sky as if propelled by another vicious torrent of the planet’s wrath, covering everything in an impenetrable miasma of dust and soot.  
As the thick haze of ash and debris finally cleared, Tara remained the only one of the three still standing. She stood as still as she could, looking for Karthas and Derith. She had never allowed herself to lose control like that. Upon witnessing the devastation she had caused, she began to fear more and more for her friends.  
“Karthas?” she asked hesitantly. “Derith?” No response. She waved her hand through the air, trying to clear more dust from her sight. The entire area looked as if a terrible weapon had been unleashed upon it. What was once flat ground now took on the form of a hellish landscape. Spikes of hard rock jutted from the earth but, there was something unfamiliar on them. Tara gasped as she began to understand. Shaking with the realization of what she had done, she looked to two, now seemingly lifeless bodies impaled on the sharp rocks. She ran to Karthas, tears in her eyes.  
“No no no no no,” she kept saying to herself. “No, please. Please, for the love of the gods, this can't be happening… Karthas!” she shouted and ran to him. Blood seemed to seep from every orifice of Karthas’s body, but mostly the grievous wound in his stomach. She held his head in her hands, seeing that his eyes were open.  
“Karthas,” she said, the tears flowing freely from her eyes now. “Karthas! Don’t worry, I’m going to go get help. I’ll save you, just let me save you.” But as she shook him, she realized that he hadn’t reacted to what she had said. “Karthas?” she asked cautiously. His eyes were open but unmoving. She looked into them, reaching out with her mind to the spark of life that she used to feel so fervently burning behind his eyes. But, the fire had died out. There was no spark, no burning... no life. Karthas was dead.  
Tara’s sobs came to her gradually. She allowed herself to feel just enough to understand what she had lost. Tara wept over Karthas, knowing that his body lay lifeless, disgraced and impaled because of no one but her.  
Her sobs grew louder in the eerie quiet. She hadn't let herself feel anything in so long for fear of shaking the very planet apart but, she couldn't help herself… First, she lost her brother, and now, the only friend who ever gave a damn about her.  
What had her life come to?


End file.
